Help Topic: Creating Dynamic Rates & Rate Tester

This article walks through building a Rule Set from scratch - Rate Rules, then Overtime Rules - and how to check your setup in the Rate Tester before it ever touches a real timesheet.

If you haven't already, read the Introduction to Dynamic Rates help file first for the underlying concepts: https://academy.tracker-rms.com/Home/Lesson/1346

In this help file:

• Step 1: Create a Rule Set
• Step 2: Build Your Rate Rules
• Step 3: Build Your Overtime Rules
• How Tracker Calculates Rates
• Testing Your Setup: The Rate Tester
• Additional Examples
  • Example 1 - Daily & Weekly Overtime
  • Example 2 - Time of Day Banding
  • Example 3 - Day + Night Shift (spanning overnight)
  • Example 4 - Overtime + Double Time (progressive daily overtime)
  • Example 5 - Weekday + Weekend Rates
  • Example 6 - Days After Start — Pre/Post Probation & AWR

 

Rule Sets are created and managed in Tools & Settings > Back Office > Dynamic Rates Rules and choosing + New Rule Set.

Each Rule Set needs:

• Name - make it easily identifiable, since this is what you'll pick from later when applying it to a shift or placement

• Client - link to Company record. Optional, leave blank to make the Rule Set available to all clients

• Position - the work type it applies to

• Description - optional

Once created, a Rule Set is just a container, the next steps are adding the Rate Rules and Overtime Rules that sit inside it.

 

Recommended build order: base Rate Rules first, then any Overtime Only Rate Rules, and finally the Overtime Rules that link them together - since Rate Rules and Overtime Rules are configured in conjunction with each other.

Not every rate set will have Overtime Rate Rules and Overtime Rules, you’ll see examples of this below.

 

Now the Rate Set is created we can start adding the Rate Rules.

A Rate Rule defines the actual pay and bill rate for a specific set of conditions. Give it a name, then configure. These are the Settings and what it does:

Pay rate / Bill rate - Set the per hour pay and bill (charge) rates

Time & Date Settings - Start and End Time (or All Day, which sets 12am–11:59pm); Days of the Week (or All Week)

Days After Start - Delays the rule until a set number of days after the placement's start date. For example: 0 means the rate applies from day one; a higher number, say 5+ delays the rate starting for probation/compliance-style stepped rates. This feature might be used for AWR in the UK.

Default - Marks this rule as the fallback used when no other time-specific rule matches. The first Rate Rule added to a set is automatically set as default

Overtime Only - Marks this rule as usable exclusively as the premium rate for an Overtime Rule - it won't apply to standard hours

Active / Inactive - Rules can be deactivated but not deleted once created

 

The Allocation method controls how worked hours are counted against the rule:

Full Hours Worked - All actual hours worked are allocated to this rule

Fixed Hours - A set number of hours are always allocated, regardless of actual hours worked (e.g. always pay 8 hours per day even if only 4 were worked)

Max Cap - Hours are allocated up to a maximum; anything above the cap flows into overtime processing. Essential for daily + weekly overtime setups. A Weekly Max (up to 48 hours) can also be set before hours move to an overtime rate.

 

Overtime Rules define the thresholds at which overtime kicks in, and which Overtime Only Rate Rule supplies the premium rate. They can operate:

• Daily - e.g. overtime after 8 hours worked in a single day

• Weekly - e.g. overtime after 40/48 hours worked in a week

Each Overtime Rule specifies a Linked Rate Rule - only Rate Rules marked "OT Only" are selectable here. This means the Overtime Rule will know which Rate to apply.

Multiple overtime tiers can be stacked (e.g. daily overtime after 8 hours, then daily double-time after 10 hours), and daily and weekly thresholds can run alongside each other. You’ll see example of this below.

Overtime Rules define the thresholds at which overtime kicks in, and which Overtime Only Rate Rule supplies the premium rate. They can operate:

• Daily - e.g. overtime after 8 hours worked in a single day

• Weekly - e.g. overtime after 40/48 hours worked in a week

Each Overtime Rule specifies a Linked Rate Rule - only Rate Rules marked "OT Only" are selectable here. This means the Overtime Rule will know which Rate to apply.

Multiple overtime tiers can be stacked (e.g. daily overtime after 8 hours, then daily double-time after 10 hours), and daily and weekly thresholds can run alongside each other. You’ll see example of this below.

 

When a timesheet is processed, Tracker:

1. Allocates hours to the base Rate Rules first.

2. Checks Overtime Rules in threshold order:

   • Daily overtime - totals actual hours worked each day; if the total exceeds the threshold, the excess is allocated to the linked OT Rate Rule. The overtime premium is the difference between the OT rate and the base rate.

   • Weekly overtime - totals all hours across the week, subtracts any daily overtime already calculated, and allocates any remaining excess above the weekly threshold to the weekly OT rate.

3. Stacks multiple tiers where configured - each tier only covers hours between its own threshold and the next (e.g. daily OT after 8 hours and daily double-time after 10 hours are processed in order).

Tip: When using daily overtime with a capped base rule, make sure the Max Cap on the base rule matches the OT threshold (e.g. if OT starts after 8 hours, cap the base rule at 8 hours).

 

The Rate Tester lets you verify a Rule Set before applying it to real timesheets. Access it via the "Rate Tester" button at the top of any Rule Set detail view.

Enter sample shift times and days. Note the handy options to quickly apply 8 or 9 hours Monday to Friday or add weekend days. Alternatively set the first date, add in the start and end times and click the plus button.

The Date will move on to the next day, the times will remain as selected before, but you can change these. Click the plus button to add more days.

Top tip: Make sure the placement start date and timesheet start date match the time entries you're testing with - otherwise Days After Start rules won't behave as expected.

When you’ve added all the days and time, click the select Calculate Rate Totals button to see the results on the right.

• Summary - shows total hours worked, and how many were allocated to overtime, along with pay and bill amounts

• Rate Breakdown - shows a total of how many hours were allocated to each Rate Rule

• Overtime Breakdown - shows a breakdown of which Overtime Rule(s) were applied and when

In this example we have just one overtime rate, which is being applied once 8 hours of the Standard Rate has been satisfied. With 9 hours worked per day, this results in 1 hours overtime per day (aka 5 hours for the week).

 

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What we have seen above was a basic example using one Overtime Rate Rule and one Overtime Rule.

Here, we take a look at a few more examples along with what they might look like in the Rate Tester. This is not an exhaustive list, but will provide some examples of how Dynamic Rates can be used.

 

Because we are using both a daily and a weekly overtime, the Standard Rate (Default) and Overtime 1 Rate (daily) have had a Max Cap allocation applied.

In this scenario, once the daily Overtime Rule has been applied and exhausted (2-hours per day), anything left over will have the Weekly Overtime Rule will be applied.

Let’s take a look at the Rate Tester where this person has worked 11 hour days, for 5 days, that’s a total of 55 hours.

Here we see that after 8 hours the Daily Overtime Rule gets applied, and then once the max of 2 hours per day allocated to that rate has been reached, the Weekly Overtime Rate picks up the remaining 5 hours.

 

This example has no overtime rates, what it does have are rates allocated to specific time bands. Here, a 24-hour day is split into four 6-hour bands: 12am–6am, 6am–12pm, 12pm–6pm, 6pm–12am, each with its own Rate Rule.

If a shift straddles more than one band, hours are automatically split and allocated across the relevant bands.

Let’s see this in the Rate Tester, and how a a 5am–5pm shift splits across three of the four Rate Rules.

Time has only been applied against two days for this example, but you’ll see no overtime rates have been applied, but three different Rates have been, as they span the hours added.

 

This example sees rates that fall into the next day (e.g. span overnight): Day (9am–5pm), Evening (5pm–9pm), Night (9pm–3am), Dawn (3am–9am).

Again, there are no Overtime Rule in this example.

The overnight band (9pm–3am) needs its days-of-week setting checked carefully, since it spans midnight.

 

In the Rate Tester an 11pm to 11am shift has been added, across 2 days, resulting in a split across 3 of the rates, similar to the Time of Day Banding example above.

 

This example adds a second overtime tier (double time) on top of the standard overtime threshold. The standard Overtime Rate Rule is capped at 2 hours, so only 2 hours of single OT are allocated before Double Time takes over.
The Overtime Rules must match up with these Rate Rules in the same threshold order.

For the Rate Tester, a 9am to 8pm shift has been added, and this splits across three Rate Rules: standard + 2 hours OT + 1 hour double time.

 

This example uses different base rates apply for weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, each with its own Overtime Rule.

Rate Rules are assigned specific days of the week (rather than All Week), so Tracker automatically applies the correct base and overtime rate for the day the contractor is working.

For the Rate Tester, the example used is for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, for 9am to 9pm, so both standards and overtime rates for each day will apply.

 

Tracker automatically switches to a higher-rate Rate Rule once a placement passes a set number of days since its configured start date — no manual change needed
Commonly used for probation-period step-ups, or to support AWR (Agency Workers Regulations) compliance in the UK, where rates step up after a qualifying period (typically 12 weeks / 84 days). "Days After Start" is the setting used to build these stepped rates.

In this example, the days after start is set to day 4, meaning the new rates are applied from day four.

For the Test example, 9 hour per day have been added for 5 days, and we see that Monday to Wednesday the Initial Rate and Pre Qualification Overtime Rate have been applied, and from day 4 (Thursday) the new Post Qualification rates (standard and overtime) have been applied.